Nicholas Fagan
Tivoli, Refugio County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Came to Texas and settled in Powers Colony in 1829; A private in Fraser's Refugio Company at the Battle of Coleto; He was saved from the massacre through the intervention of Mexican colonial friends. Erected by the State of Texas 1956
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Nicholas Fagan came to Texas in 1829, settling in Power's colony along the Gulf Coast, and served as a private in Fraser's Refugio company during the Texas Revolution. Captured after the Battle of Coleto in 1836, he escaped the fate of the Goliad Massacre when Mexican friends intervened to spare his life. The state honored him with this marker in 1956.
Why it matters
Fagan's survival personalizes one of the darkest episodes of the Texas Revolution, the mass execution at Goliad that hardened resolve behind the cry 'Remember Goliad!'
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Related people
- · Nicholas Fagan
Related events
- · Battle of Coleto
- · Goliad Massacre
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Peter Teal
Tivoli, TX
Tennessee-born Peter Teal (1812–1854) took up arms in the fight for Texas independence, serving in the Army of the Republic in 1835 and 1836. The State of Texas placed this marker at his grave in 1936 as part of its centennial remembrance of the men who won the Republic.
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Battle of Coleto and Goliad Massacre
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After the fall of the Alamo in March 1836, Colonel James Walker Fannin and some 400 men, many of them volunteers from the United States, were ordered to retreat from Goliad toward Victoria. General Urrea's Mexican force surrounded them near Coleto Creek on March 19, and after fierce fighting the outnumbered Texans surrendered, expecting to be treated as prisoners of war. Instead, on Palm Sunday they were marched out and executed at Goliad on Santa Anna's orders—an atrocity that, with the Alamo, gave the victors at San Jacinto their cry, "Remember the Alamo, Remember Goliad."
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